Our planet faces increasingly urgent sustainability challenges that require paradigm
shifting approaches to daily life and, consequently, to deliver this, new research priorities
in various disciplines. Electrochemical energy storage research and innovation
is one such research line of critical importance and impact. Substantial progress
in battery technology is essential if we are to succeed in an energy transition toward
a more carbon-neutral, sustainable, and cleaner society. We need to move toward
more sustainable energy harvesting and storage technologies that become part of
a circular economy. Materials sustainability will become an important consideration
in the years to come, from mining to refining and to reuse of battery materials
conjointly with consumer demands that are very real and ever-increasing. Under
such a scenario, the production of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) will growconsiderably over
the years to come, hence reviving the issue of finite mineral concentrate reserves
for some critical raw materials for batteries. This concern has driven researchers to
explore new, potentially more sustainable chemistries, including Na-ion, metal–air
chemistries Li(Na)–O2, Li–S, multivalent (Mg, Ca), redox flow batteries (RFBs), and
aqueous-based technologies. Readers are referred to several books and extensive
review article for details of the advancedmade using many phases, crystal structures,
and stoichiometries of cathode and anodematerials that have improved their understanding
and application for better LIBs [1, 2]. The accomplishments in materials
synthesis and performance-related benefits for LIBs have been extensive in recent
years.Newforms of electrodematerial design have shown promise for higher energy
density LIBs, including new forms of inorganic material selection [3], and the development
of cation disordered and Li-enriched compounds for faster rate and better
performing electrode materials [4, 5] is at the forefront in battery materials research
currently.